晉 → 比
Hexagram 35: Progress → Hexagram 8: Holding Together
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 4, 5, 6).
Line 4
九四 晉如鼫鼠。貞厲。
Nine in the fourth place means: Progress like a hamster. Perseverance brings danger.
Line 5
六五 悔亡。失得勿恤。往吉无不利。
Six in the fifth place means: Remorse disappears. Take not gain and loss to heart. Undertakings bring good fortune. Everything serves to further.
Line 6
上九 晉其角。維用伐邑。厲吉无咎。貞吝。
Nine at the top means: Making progress with the horns is permissible Only for the purpose of punishing one's own city. To be conscious of danger brings good fortune. No blame. Perseverance brings humiliation.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
黍稷禾稻，垂秀方造，中旱不雨，傷風病藁。
Millet, grain, rice, and paddy; tassels hang, about to ripen. Midseason drought, no rain; the wind wounds, the stalks wither.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire rises above the earth, and the grain stands tall in the field — millet, rice, and wheat all bowing heavy with ripening ears, their harvest nearly ready. Then drought strikes. No rain falls, and the wind carries blight that withers the stalks to dry straw. The verse captures the cruelest timing: abundance visible but snatched away at the threshold of fulfillment. From Progress to Holding Together, the transformation resonates with bitter irony. Water upon earth should nourish, yet here the bond between sky and field has broken. The image of Holding Together asks who will rally around the center — but when the center itself is parched, even solidarity cannot conjure rain.
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